Tidbits-18: Pain-Free After Surgery With Homeopathy!

Pain-free after surgery? Oh yeah, it could happen! It happened to me! OK, it was dental surgery; but, surgery is surgery!

What is the likelihood that anyone could be pain-free after surgery without narcotics? So unlikely, that if you announced it to the world, no one would believe you! But I am here to tell you it’s true! (I could have experienced it a lot sooner but I kept using the 30C potency, which is generally too low of a potency to stand up to such an onslaught of pain due to physical trauma! Imagine my disappointment, as I kept hearing about how people were pain-free after surgery with homeopathy! This is proof that the rumor about physical complaints always needing low potencies is just not true! Let’s put that to rest right now, shall we? If a physical complaint is intense and recent–as all surgeries are–you need a high potency!)

I’ve told this story before but it bears repeating: It’s about an especially traumatic dental surgery I had that included stitches. When it was over, I took my tube of Arnica 200C out of my car, and couldn’t get the cap off! It was stuck! All I had left was Arnica 10M! Boy, did that scare me. Arnica 10M? Is that safe? Might it cause an aggravation at that level? I took it since it was all that I had. Incredibly, when the novocaine wore off? I had NO PAIN! What a lesson this was for me about potency! Later when the pain started coming back, I redosed, and again the pain went away! I had no swelling! The instructions I came home with said the swelling would be at its worst on day-2, but I had no swelling at all. I ate dinner as always, went to sleep with no problem, and woke up as if nothing had happened! Potency matters, people! Do I need Arnica 10M if I stub my toe? No, 30C will be just fine.

So let’s talk about what you’re going to need after surgery.

Phosphorus

Chances are that after surgery where general anesthesia has been used, the first symptom you might become aware of is nausea from the anesthesia. Phosphorus 30C or 200C will take care of that! Usually the patient demands water or ice during this time, which is a sure sign Phosphorus is the right remedy.

Arnica

With nausea cleared away, it’s time to bring out our Big Gun–Arnica 10M! I mean sure, you can try Arnica 200C if you like, just to see what will happen….but I, personally, think the situation calls for a super-high potency! (And for you new-comers out there, the “M” potencies are higher than the “C’s”. They start at 1M and go up to CM. Rarely is a potency higher than 10M needed.) Arnica is for any kind of sore, bruised and achy pain. It also brings down swelling. And by the way, you take it once, and wait to see what happens. At that potency, something ought to happen! If you get a good result, don’t take it again unless you start to relapse. But let’s not forget Arnica’s cousin….

Bellis perennis

Bellis and Arnica are both daisies. I guess we owe a lot to the daisy family for easing our pain! Bellis perennis is for deeper tissue surgery, like perhaps a C-section or intestinal surgery. It’s for bruising of internal organs. Bellis also has insomnia and restlessness; so, you might want to think of Bellis if your surgery patient is restless, wide awake, and can’t shut his mind off to go to sleep at night. Now, what if you start experiencing sharp pains, cutting pains, incision pains?

Staphysagria

What a beautiful flower!

Can I just add, for new-comers, that we do not take this (or any) remedy as an herbal tincture or tea, we take these plants in homeopathic form. This is what you’ll be looking for:

“Effects of ‘wounds made by clean-cutting instruments’ is the keynote.”

Also….

“When colic follows operations on the ovaries or intestines.”

Here’s something interesting, it’s also good for nausea after surgery! In fact, think of Staphysagria in seasickness and morning sickness too. I often have trouble knowing when to give Staphysagria and when to give our next flower friend…

So, Calendula is for lacerations, cuts and scrapes. And this is what you should have in your medicine cabinet as a first-aid cream; not Neosporin, but this:

Note that Calendula cream comes in tubes also. Calendula is an antiseptic! And yes, you should have Calendula 30C and 200C as well! Murphy’s Materia Medica says,

“For all wounds, the greatest healing agent. .. Calendula is all the dressing one will need for any open wound and severe lacerations. It takes away the local pain and suffering. There is nothing that will cause these external injuries to heal so beautifully as Calendula. Jahr, who was in Paris during the Coup d’ Etat of 1849, treated a number of cases of gun-shot wounds with comminuted bones [bones broken into fragments] and saved several limbs by means of Calendula. It prevented suppuration and pyemia [blood poisoning]. In obstetric practice it is invaluable.”

You may have to be catheterized after surgery if your bladder is paralyzed–more on this later, but, there are a lot of catheter issues that are covered by either Staphysagria or Calendula or both:

Ailments after catheter–Calen, Staphysagria

Burning after catheter–Calen, Staph, Cantharis

Injury from catheter–Calen, Staphysagria

Pains after catheter–Calen., Staphysagria, Cantharis

Catheter aggravates–Calen., Staphysagria

Infection from catheter–Staphysagria, Pyrogen, Cantharis

Fever from catheter–Aconite, Calen., Pyrogen, Staphysagria

But, maybe you won’t even need a catheter because, the way to handle paralysis of the bladder (inability to pass urine) after surgery is with….

Causticum

Causticum is famous for paralysis of single parts. But interestingly, Calendula is in that rubric too! “Bladder: paralysis, surgery, after”–Calendula, Causticum, Opium. Think of Causticum for inability to urinate after surgery.

Pyrogen

Post-surgical fever, blood poisoning, septicemia. They will try to give you antibiotics but I’ll take Pyrogen 200C or 1M, thank you very much!

Hypericum

Depression after surgery. Also, very similar to Calendula and Staphysagria–very painful lacerated wounds, worse touch! Also, puncture wounds, animal bites, injuries to fingers and toes, spinal tap headaches, tetanus, injury to spine, injuries to nerves, neuritis, shooting pains, injuries to brain and spinal cord, concussion, excessive painfulness, gunshot wounds, give for pain after surgery, hard to distinguish from Calendula; so, give both of them. Inability to stoop or walk after fall on the coccyx bone. (Boy, do I know about that!) Now, here’s an interesting story. I had a dental surgery not too long ago, and I took my trusty Arnica 10M and nothing much happened! Wasn’t sure what to do or why Arnica wasn’t working; so, I took Hypericum 200C, and all the pain went away! So, you just never really know, do you? That’s why you don’t go into surgery with just one remedy.

Ledum

Black and blue marks from IV needles. Pain from IV needles. Bed sores. Puncture wounds, animal bites, insect bites–especially mosquitoes; give before and after vaccinations–Ledum 30C. I think it was my friend Lynda who told me that a surgeon told her mother that if she didn’t agree to a vaccination, she couldn’t have her surgery! Holy cow! What is this, blackmail? Extortion? I’ve never heard of such a thing! But if it ever happens to you, Ledum before, and Ledum after. Yeesh!

China

Also known as Cinchona bark or Peruvian bark. Think of China for post-operative gas pains. Also for ailments after gallbladder surgery.

Strontium carb.

Nux vomica

You might be thinking, “What could Nux vomica possibly be used for after surgery?” Well, you might be surprised to hear that it will also help with the nausea from anesthesia. In fact, Nux vomica is useful any time there’s an issue of drug use in a case, and what could be a bigger drug than anesthesia? Plus, I have a feeling that they give you a whole cocktail of drugs during, before and after surgery that you’re not even aware of! Any one of them could be causing problems! Here’s an interesting story…. Oh yes, it’s another one of my dental stories! After the surgery, whatever it was for (there have been so many!) the pain at the injection site wouldn’t go away! Naturally, I took Hypericum and Ledum and neither one of them did anything! I was running out of ideas when I thought that maybe it could be Nux vomica due to the fact that a drug (novocaine) was what was injected! Guess what? I was right! Nux vomica 30C totally took the pain away!

Bryonia

About the author

Elaine Lewis

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.
Elaine is a passionate homeopath, helping people offline as well as online. Contact her at LEWRA@aol.com Elaine is a graduate of Robin Murphy's Hahnemann Academy of North America and author of many articles on homeopathy including her monthly feature in the Hpathy ezine, "The Quiz". Visit her website at: http://elainelewis.hpathy.com/ and TheSilhouettes.org

I think it was Alan who told me that he once took Hypericum before dental surgery and because of that, the novocaine wouldn’t take! (Alan, you can correct me if I’m wrong.) Since then, I have not been a fan of giving remedies before surgery, except the ones for fear and anxiety, if needed. You want the anesthesia to work, you don’t want to be antidoting the anesthesia.

My son (after an appendectomy) could not stop vomiting. Nurses gave it their best shot (literally), and when hours later it was still going on-mom snuck him a dose of Staphysagria and the vomiting immediately stopped! I just had to be put out for oral surgery and always have a time coming to afterward. Opium 30c seemed to help tremendously and of course the Arnica took care of pain and swelling..not one pain pill..and I had several stitches as well. 🙂

I never recommend taking Arnica, in particular, BEFORE surgery, as I do think it interferes with anesthesia. I’m not sure every remedy will have this effect, but I believe the way Arnica stops bleeding is by closing the valves of the veins. (Arnica is a daisy. Think about how daisies close up their petals when it rains or when it gets dark. Homeopathic Arnica closes up the blood vessels in the same way, and stops blood from going through.) The thing is, this same reaction will stop anesthesia from traveling through the blood vessels as well. I came to this conclusion after a couple of personal experiences.

The first was when I went in to have my mercury fillings removed and replaced. I had taken Arnica 30C two doses before, as recommended in a book I’d read. After giving me the local anesthetic, the dentist kept coming to check on me, and I just wasn’t numb. He kept giving me more shots and allowed me ample time to numb, but I could definitely still feel everything and did not have that numb feeling at all. After a time, he said he simply couldn’t give me anymore anesthesia, and we’d just have to go ahead and do it. I do believe the Arnica provided some pain relief, as I was able to tolerate all the work he did, but I was definitely aware that I wasn’t numb. When finished, I had none of the usual ‘fat lip’ going on. My daughter was having a tooth pulled at the same time, and of course I’d also given her Arnica ahead of time. She had the same experience, and the dentist just thought it was a family tendency. But, a few hours later, once the Arnica wore off, we were both so flooded with anesthetic that we could barely move our tongues to talk! Never have I been so numb in my life. It was also interesting to see how we both became numb at almost the exact same time (We had taken the Arnica at the same time.), indicating to me that the action of the Arnica had worn off, the valves of the veins had opened, and the anesthesia and blood was finally able to go where it was intended.

Another few incidents that changed my stance on giving Arnica beforehand, involved my second son, the King of Head Injuries and Accidents. At first I just thought it was him, because every time we wound up in the ER for a broken bone or a torn ACL, it was impossible to get even a drop of blood out of him. The nurses were always puzzled as it LOOKED like he had excellent, prominent veins. Each time, the expert phlebotomist would eventually be summoned. They tried putting hot packs on, tried taking blood from various locations, all to no avail. And, nothing else would happen until they got their precious blood sample. They were always so baffled, said they’d never seen anything like it. Finally, after a couple of hours they could suddenly get blood. It finally occurred to me that it was the Arnica that I’d given to him as soon as the accident happened and right before we went into the hospital. So now, unless there’s a lot of bleeding, I will wait to give Arnica until the blood’s drawn. Of course, if there is bleeding from traumatic injury, Arnica should absolutely be given, and will stop the bleeding in under a minute in most cases.

In regard to the scratched cornea/Calendula..are we talking taking the remedy or would it be safe to put a tiny bit of Calendula ointment in the eye (as my husband was given an ‘opthalmic ointment’ to put in his eye many years ago..just wondering if the ointment could be used? Thanks for so much great info!!

Elaine, I am thankful I have a big family who are constantly providing me with real life experience 🙂 I forgot to say thank you to you, though, in my last comment. Not sure when it was that I read your recommendation of using 10Ms for surgery, but that has proved to be excellent advice, that I’ve used for both my family and patients. The lower potencies just don’t cut it. Your explanation made so much sense to me, and I’ve used it often.

Three years ago, my son (the aforementioned King of Head Injuries and Accidents), after being in a wheelchair for two years, was finally able to get a long-needed ACL reconstruction surgery done. It’s a pretty extreme surgery, where they tease apart some of the hamstring from the belly of the muscle, drill a hole through the tibia, and then pull the hamstring through the hole in order to fashion a new ACL (His was completely ruptured.). He also had his meniscus trimmed and other work done. The orthopedist warned us that it would be a very painful surgery, probably the most painful surgery he did, and recovery would be long. Our neighbor’s son had this same surgery done and they warned us that the first month would be brutal, that they’d never seen their son in so much pain, but it was worth it in the end. Because my son was still recovering from a major Traumatic Brain Injury, 5 years prior, where 75% of his frontal lobe had been damaged, he just didn’t do well at all with any kind of drugs or even something as seemingly innocent as a cup of coffee or a bit of dark chocolate. Anything like that would act as an excitotoxin to his nervous system, and would greatly affect him. Because of this, my plan was to use homeopathic remedies as much as we could. I’ve used homeopathy for many more minor surgeries, primarily dental, and had seen excellent results using the high potencies.

The surgery took 4 hours, and Nux vomica worked wonderfully at relieving him of his nausea and clearing the anesthesia. I used Ledum 200C at first, and then made a water bottle with Arnica 10M and Hypericum 1M, giving it at fairly frequent intervals, shaking it between doses. I later added Ruta and Calendula as needed. The surgeon had bandaged an “antibiotic/pain pump” directly onto the incision during the surgery, because of the expected pain. This was not optional, but they removed it at the 2-day check up. Other than that, my son ONLY had homeopathic remedies for both pain relief and to prevent infection. I never denied him using anything else–he simply never needed it. In fact, he said his pain was actually less than the chronic pain he’d been living with for so long from his injuries! When we went in for his 2-week follow up, the surgeon asked how many pills he was taking per day. He said that you have to be careful, because many patients become addicted to the pain meds during their recovery. When we told him he’d had ZERO, he was incredulous, and said he’d never had a patient who hadn’t taken pain meds! He also had almost no swelling, which the doctor said was remarkable at that point. But, amazingly to me, though I told him I’d used homeopathic remedies instead, he never inquired further about them. It’s too bad, as homeopathy can help so easily and well in surgical cases.

My son healed so quickly and faithfully did his home exercises, that he was released from PT nearly a month earlier than expected. That surgery gave him his life back, as he’s no longer in pain or in a wheelchair, thankful for being able to walk and run and surf again. So, we’re very grateful for the surgeon’s skills, but very happy to have homeopathy to rely on. It has not let me down, yet.

Many thanks to Avril for narrating a great real life experience of Arnica 10M given to his son after his ACL reconstruction surgery. That corroborates the efficacy of Arnica in high potency given in appropriate cases.

Wow! What a great story!!! You are showing with a real life example why I wrote this article and what post-surgery can be like with homeopathy! And yes you’re right, the low potencies just don’t cut it! Also, can you believe the surgeon not being the least bit interested in what caused his patient to be free of pain and swelling? Well, my dentist shows no interest either, so, what can I say?!

Yes, real life experiences are the best way we learn, IMO. And, sad to say, in all my years of seeing amazing results with homeopathy for things usually only treated allopathically (or, considered incurable), I think there have been only two doctors who have ever said, “What did you give? I want to know more!”. This orthopedist, who at the initial consult claimed to be into using alternatives, suddenly turned quite abrupt and cold at the follow up, as if he was ticked off about it, or maybe he thought we were lying about it, IDK?? It was as if he just couldn’t comprehend it even being possible. I will never understand that attitude. We need more curious people.